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Johnny Brainerd
Johnny Brainerd was a genius inventor of robots, and widely considered to be the predecessor to Frank Reade, Jack Wright and Tom Swift. He was born in 1852, and disappeared at some point in 1877. Early Life Johnny Brainerd was a small, hunch-backed dwarf, the son of Sarah Slick (1826-1891) and Francis Brainerd, who was a freelance inventor. Alas, Francis died in 1852, a month before Johnny was born, so he lived in practical poverty, the only money the family owned coming from Francis' patents and Sarah's seamstress skills. This was enough, however, to send the young Brainerd to an excellent Private School. As a bright-eyed child in St. Louis Johnny was continually inventing things--wonderful toys, miniature steam boats and locomotives that were perfect and operational in every way, a clock that kept perfect time, a working telegraph, and so on. All of these he created using improvised tools such as a jackknife, hammer and chisel. But, alas, he ran out of things to invent, and complained to his mother, who suggested that he build "a man that shall go by steam." This idea gripped Johnny, and he spent "several weeks in thought" before beginning to construct it. After a series of false starts he managed to make the Steam Man--which is not an android but merely an engine in the shape of a man. Johnny, triumphant, immediately leapt into the cart and left for the frontier. He left without telling his mother where he was going, and this was to cause her no small amount of heartache, but Johnny was only 14 (he'd celebrated his birthday on a Saturday by spending 18 hours in his workshop, labouring away) and so gave little thought to what his actions might do to others. Johnny ventured into the frontier, exploring various areas in the American South West (his exact itinerary is unknown, unfortunately; his journal is maddeningly vague in some respects, especially the nature of the native tribes he fought against and the areas he travelled through) and encountering various Indian peoples. Johnny traveled extensively through the frontier, possibly even to the Pacific, Johnny saved several small villages and clusters of settlers from attacks by the natives and slaughtered large numbers of natives with his Steam Man. He also gathered a great deal of gold and silver, both straight from the mountains and mines and from the dead bodies of those who had tried to kill him. By trip’s end Johnny was rich. He had not made any friends, for he had been moving too quickly for anyone to really get to know him, but he had impressed those he’d met as being friendly and bright, if young and deformed. He returned home with his money and immediately paid off the family debts and restored the Brainerd mansion. After that he had himself privately tutored and began trying to improve his appearance and social graces. Although he was still not popular with the other children and young men in his neighbourhood or with his old classmates, news of his trip had spread so that those in St. Louis were aware that he had done something out of the ordinary and had gained great wealth thereby. Edward Ellis, a dime novel writer in New Jersey, heard the story of Johnny’s achievements via a travelling businessman acquaintance and, sensing a story, traveled to St. Louis and interviewed Brainerd. The results became Brainerd’s pseudo-biography, which brought Brainerd a great deal of fame and Ellis large profits. The Steam Man The Steam Man is described in a contemporary journalistic account thus: *"It was about ten feet in height, measuring to the top of the "stove-pipe hat," which was fashioned after the common order of felt coverings, with a broad brim, all painted a shiny black. The face was made of iron, painted a black color, with a pair of fearful eyes, and a tremendous grinning mouth. A whistle-like contrivance was made to answer for the nose. The steam chest proper and boiler, were where the chest in a human being is generally supposed to be, extending also into a large knapsack arrangement over the shoulders and back. A pair of arms, like projections, held the shafts, and the broad flat feet were covered with sharp spikes, as though he were the monarch of base-ball players. The legs were quite long, and the step was natural, except when running, at which time, the bolt uprightness in the figure showed differed from a human being. *"In the knapsack were the valves, buy which the steam or water was examined. In front was a painted imitation of a vest, in which a door opened to receive the fuel, which, together with the water, was carried in the wagon, a pipe running along the shaft and connecting with the boiler. *"The lines which the driver held controlled the course of the steam man; thus, by pulling the strap on the right, a deflection was caused which turned it in that direction, and the same acted on the other side. A small rod, which ran along the right shaft, let out or shut off the steam, as was desired, while a cord, running along the left, controlled the whistle at the nose. *"The legs of this extraordinary mechanism were fully a yard apart, so as to avoid the danger of its upsetting, and at the same time, there was given more room for the play of the delicate machinery within. Long, sharp, spike-like projections adorned the soles of the immense foot, so that there was little danger of its slipping, while the length of the legs showed that, under favourable circumstances, the steam man must be capable of very great speed." Frank Reade later purchased the patent for Johnny Brainerd's Steam Man, and improved on it to create the Steam Man Mark II and Mark III. Later Career Johnny continued inventing after the publication of his pseudo-biography, but from what can be gleaned from his journal he grew unhappy with the quality of his inventions and began destroying them or throwing them into the Mississippi river. On some occasions he even threw the blueprints after them. While he was happy inventing, the end results rarely pleased him. After hearing about Thomas Edison’s creations and fame, Brainerd seemed to want to match him, and became increasingly frustrated that he was not able to. (Brainerd’s talents lay more in mechanical creations than in electrical ones). Johnny, following graduation, was intelligent, articulate, skilled in the social graces, well-dressed, and wealthy. His private tutors had seen to all but the latter, which he’d needed no help with. These were all qualities in short supply in St. Louis and Missouri in 1870 and 1871, when the city and the state were still recovering from the horrifying effects of the Civil War. Johnny was known to have gone adventuring, thus demonstrating his manly bravery, and to treat his mother well. And, again, he was wealthy. In short, he was St. Louis’ most eligible bachelor, despite his looks, and the flower of Missouri womenhood began paying court to him. Johnny, however, had too much of the family blood in him to settle down quickly or quietly, and instead began frequenting cathouses (of which there were still a number, even in “civilized” St. Louis) and traveling, seeing the country and sampling women everywhere. After all, in the space of only a few years he had gone from a lonely, tormented, disfigured outcast to a wealthy, sleek, famous bachelor. Giving in to his basic urges and making up for lost time under those circumstances would be understandable. Johnny alternated between months at home, trying to create, and months traveling. According to the diaries of Edward S. Ellis Brainerd visited him in New Jersey in 1871 and 1872. The two had struck up a friendship, each seeing the other (with justification) as being responsible for their fame and fortune. In 1871 Johnny, in New Jersey visiting Ellis, was walking on the beach at Mantoloking when he met Anna Wright, a native of nearby Wrightstown. They loved passionately and intensely for a short period, and then Johnny left, in a seemingly cold and abrupt way. If his actions bothered him, there is no evidence of it. Likewise, when Johnny, in 1872, took up with Maryann Driscoll, of Mantoloking, he loved her and left her within three weeks’ time without so much as a voiced regret. Anna Wright, following Johnny’s departure, returned to her parents’ house. She was the child of a local businessman and his wife, a petit-bourgeois couple who, on finding their beloved teenaged daughter pregnant, were disapproving but finally loving, and they supported her through the pregnancy and childbirth. She gave birth to Jack Wright in 1872. He grew up in the care of Anna and her parents, Anna never having married; she still lived at home with her parents despite having become a successful newspaper reporter. Jack Wright later became another famous inventor. Johnny Brainerd’s last public appearance was in 1877, when he announced that he would be joining in the investigation of the disappearances in Providence, Rhode Island, which were rumored to be linked to the notorious and controversial Starry Wisdom Cult, who were reported to worship Nyarlathotep. Brainerd left for Providence in February 1877. He was never seen again. Category:Pages Category:People Category:Inventors Category:Scientists